Motor Sport / Chris Ryan / 18 October 2009 / Leave a comment Bet Now

Driver's championship contender starts from pole position on his home track for the penultimate race of the season, writes Marissa van Uden.

His two main championship challengers are both tucked safely near the back of the grid: Jenson Button, in the other Brawn, starts from 14th position, and Sebastian Vettel's Red Bull qualified 16th.

Qualifying lasted almost three hours after heavy rain, red flags, and a flooded track caused disruption to the day's running. The stormy weather caught out Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton (who qualified in P18), because both of their cars were set up for drier conditions.

While Vettel may have had his worst qualifying of the season, he now has everything to drive for and nothing to lose. His slim chance at the championship is not lost yet; with unpredictable weather and possible rain on Sunday, anything could happen.

Barrichello, meanwhile, is not only driving for the championship, he is also looking for his first-ever win at his home track. He shares the front row with Mark Webber in the second Red Bull. Adrian Sutil's Force India is in P3, followed by Jarno Trulli's Toyota (P4), Kimi Räikkönen's Ferrari (P5), Sebastian Buemi's Torro Rosso(P6), Nico Rosberg's Williams (P7), Robert Kubica's BMW-Sauber (P8), Kazuki Nakijima's Williams (P9) and Fernando Alonso's Renault (P10). Kamui Kobayashi is driving the other Toyota for Timo Glock (not racing due to an injured vertebrate), and starts from P11.

Rookies Jaime Alguersuari (Torro Rosso) in P12 and Romain Grosjean (Renault) in P13 are both starting ahead of the championship-points leader Jenson Button. Behind Button, Vitantonio Liuzzi is in P15 after crashing his Force India heavily in qualifying session two.

Button needs to stay on the track and gather third place to win the championship, but his choice of tires on the wet track in qualifying meant he didn't make it through into the top ten, leaving his team-mate and championship contender Barrichello with an excellent chance to not only make this his first win at his home circuit, but to narrow the gap considerably and bring the championship down to the wire in Abu Dhabi.

Making up the back of the grid behind Vettel is Heikki Kovalainen (P17) ahead of team mate Hamilton (P18) and Nick Heidfeld (P19). Giancarlo Fisichella, driving for Ferrari, makes up the last slot on the grid after he aqua-planed and stalled his car during the first session.